Got a question from Joe earlier about his setup and what might get him more volume on his sax as well as getting rid of the squeals and squawks.

At first he thought a different ligature might help, but it didn’t.

He also really likes the sound of the mouthpiece he’s using now…..

He said he was using a Selmer C* mouthpiece, which I know doesn’t have a wide tip opening and can get a great sound.  But is generally better in a classical setting.  I thought I might know of a solution to help him get more volume on his sax……

The C* mouthpiece (referring to the tip opening), is more designed with classical music in mind. Not to get a lot of volume, like you might want in jazz, funk, R&B, etc.

Therefore using a harder reed might compensate for the narrow tip opening.

A general rule is that you want a softer reed with a wider tip opening and harder reed with a narrower tip opening. Let me know if the harder reed makes things better.

Joe’s response:
“hey thanks for that the harder reed solved the squawking and the volume problem. ( i had some extra vandorn 3 1/2 ‘s left….”

There was another issue he’s still having with his sound, but the volume part was solved.

You want to get a balance between the reed strength and the tip opening of your mouthpiece.